A former prosecutor in southern Mexico is arrested in the gruesome beheading of a mayor

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A former prosecutor and local police officer was arrested Tuesday in connection with the grisly incident Beheading of a mayor on October 6th.

Officials in the southern state of Guerrero confirmed that Germán Reyes was arrested for the murder of Alejandro Arcos just a week after he took office as mayor of the state capital Chilpancingo.

The arrest was shocking because officials had previously blamed the killing on a local drug and extortion gang and Reyes was previously employed as a special prosecutor for the state of Guerrero, a high-ranking position.

The conclusion was that Reyes — who was also a former military officer who retired as a military justice captain, according to his official resume — had somehow worked with the gang.

That would suggest that at least one of the two feuding gangs Those fighting for control of Chilpancingo control, intimidate or collaborate with the officials there.

If Reyes were to be convicted, it would also be a sharp rebuke Policies adopted by cities across Mexico that they hire retired military officers for top positions in local police, assuming they are less prone to corruption.

It was also telling that state detectives had to rely on federal forces — soldiers and the National Guard — to make the arrest, suggesting they may not have trusted state and regional police who typically handle such duties.

It was not clear what title Reyes held in the Chilpancingo municipal security forces or whether he served under both Arcos and Arcos the replacement mayor who took office after he was killed.

Mexico's top federal security official, Omar García Harfuch, said earlier Tuesday that Arcos – the mayor whose body was found in a pickup truck and whose severed head lay on the roof of the vehicle – appeared to have been killed by the same gang that was responsible Last week, eleven market vendors, including four boys, were killed.

The vendors, members of an extended family, were kidnapped in late October while they were on their way to sell their goods. Their bodies were found in the back of a pickup truck on an avenue in Chilpancingo last week.

While neither Harfuch nor prosecutors named the gang, a local human rights activist said the Ardillos were responsible for killing the market vendors.

The activist, who did not want to be quoted for fear of reprisals, said the Ardillos gang controls large swathes of the state and has state congressmen and other officials working for them.

The Ardillos are embroiled in a years-long battle for control of Chilpancingo with a rival gang, the Tlacos. As a result of these clashes, mutilated corpses have been lying around the city in recent years.

Chilpancingo, a city of about 300,000 people, is so completely dominated by gangs that in 2023 one of them staged a demonstration with hundreds of people, hijacked a government armored car, blocked a major road and took the police hostage to secure the release of arrested suspects.

The violence in Guerrero reached such unprecedented levels that the Roman Catholic bishops announced earlier this year had helped negotiate a ceasefire in another part of the state between two warring drug cartels.

At the time, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who refused to confront the gangs, said he supported such talks.

“Priests and pastors as well as members of all churches took part and contributed to the peace of the country. I think it’s very good,” said López Obrador, who left office on September 30.

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